The figures give dizzy. In view of the attendance recorded at the end of November, the Louvre museum most visited in the world, expected to reach 10 million visitors by the end of the year. The record for annual attendance established in 2012, with 9.7 million visitors would be exceeded, depending on the direction of the museum. In 2017, the Louvre had recorded a sharp increase in attendance (after the year 2016 in hindsight, after the events of 2015 in Paris), welcoming 8.1 million visitors. With the Louvre-Lens, these are 8.5 million visitors that have been able to admire the collections in 2017.

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This record to come with the announcement of the launch of a night free each month , decorated with various fun activities, with the ambition of opening up to a new audience, more popular, beyond the regulars and foreign tourists. This new offering, from the 5th of January , will target in priority the ile-de-france but also the young people and families with older children and adolescents. It is also proposed to the holders of the Pass Culture, that is in the process of developing the ministry of Culture for young people.

Democratize the Louvre

The goal is that “this night is a true lever of democratization of the Louvre,” says the museum in a press release. These twelve nights from 18h to 21: 45 will replace the first six Sundays free from October to march, the formula of which is abandoned for lack of success. In effect, free Sunday has failed to attract those who do not come from the ordinary.

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“The number of domestic visitors coming for the first time at the Louvre was in decline during these Sundays free so that the attendance of foreign visitors increased significantly, in particular to the initiative of the tourist agencies taking advantage of this windfall effect”, it is in the Louvre. “The popular categories have not been more numerous on Sundays, free of charge: there are 16% of workers on Sundays, free of charge”, according to a barometer of the public of the Louvre.

The museum will offer free access to wings Denon and Sully . The Richelieu wing to be free, but only available on booking . At the heart of the collections of oriental antiquities, several activities will be offered to visitors. The year 2019 will be a year of testing, both on the choice of the beach zone on the animations proposed. In the cour Marly, on the first night of the 5 January, a space games and a reading corner will nest between two sculptures. A brass band, storytelling, workshops, sketches, presentations, unexpected works, games track will complete the discovery of the collections by the families.